This invention generally relates to the printing field and, more particularly, to a system and related methods for automatically determining media type in a printing device media tray.
In the mid-1400""s, Johann Gutenberg revolutionized how information is disseminated through his invention of the movable type press. With the publication of the Mazarin Bible, documents which were once held in the exclusive domain of a chosen few were now widely available to the masses. Nearly 550 years later, the mass media revolution that Gutenberg started is alive and well, complete with newspapers such as the New York Times and the Washington Post, magazines such as Newsweek and Sports Illustrated, and literally thousands upon thousands of other publications.
While these thousands of publications cover a wide range of interests, from news to sports to fashion to model rocketry, they have one thing in common: they are intended to be read by a mass market. Unlike the pre-Gutenberg days, where a document would literally be read by only one person of a very small number of people, it is not economically viable for today""s publications to have such a small readership, due at least in part to high marketing, production and distribution costs. In fact, many of today""s publications are funded to a very large extent by the advertising contained within them. These advertisers are attracted to publications that can consistently deliver a large, reliable audience of consumers that will be exposed to their advertising.
While this mass-market publication model has worked well for hundreds of years, it is not without its problems. One such problem is that a typical reader of a publication has a wide variety of interests, and no single mass market publication will be able to satisfy all of these interests. For example, a reader who is interested in international news, golf, fly-fishing, Genealogy, and computers may have to subscribe to several different publications to satisfy these interests. Of course, since these publications are intended for the mass market, they will also contain a significant amount of material that our reader is not interested in and will not read. It goes without saying that if there is a significant amount of material a reader isn""t reading, there is a significant amount of advertising that the reader isn""t reading eitherxe2x80x94as well as a significant amount of paper that is wasted. Advertisers know this, and agree to pay considerably less to a mass market magazine or newspaper per 1000 exposures to their ad than they would pay to a direct-mail generator that can provide a more specific guarantee that the people exposed to their ad are of a demographic group that will be much more likely to read their ad and be interested in it.
In addition, it is neither cost-effective nor time effective for most readers to subscribe to and/or read a large number of publications. Generally, the typical reader will only subscribe to a few publications that are of the most interest to them. The reduced readership level of the publications our typical reader chooses not to subscribe to, even though she might be interested in at least some of the editorial and advertising content contained inside, means that the publication receives less subscription and advertising revenue than they otherwise would. If many other readers make the same decision, the continued health of the publication may be in jeopardy, and the publication may be forced out of business. In fact, many publications do go out of business yearly for failing to attract a sustaining number of advertisers and readersxe2x80x94even if there are a large number of readers that would be interested in reading their publication, and a corresponding number of advertisers anxious to have these readers exposed to their ads. Indeed, advertising rates are often determined by the size of a publication""s readership, thus readership retention is vital to the survival of a publication. In general, publications that fail to attract a substantial mass market of people willing to pay for and/or read them cease publication. This is a shame, since many of these publications would enrich the diversity of information available to all readers, and would provide an avenue for lesser known writers and artists to practice their wares.
In more recent years, a new type of publication has emerged: the electronic publication. Readers of these publications typically access the Internet through their computer, and read the publications online. Some of these publications, such as CNN.com and pointcast.com, allow users to state personal preference on what type of material they would like to read. Often, these personalized publications include advertising, usually in the form of a banner ad that is placed on along a periphery of the visual display (top, bottom, side, etc.).
While these electronic publications have been an interesting development in the distribution of information, they still represent only a tiny fraction of the information that is published under the more traditional post-Gutenberg model. Many readers of these electronic publications complain that they are very difficult to read (on the video display), especially for long periods of time. While it might be convenient for a reader to sign onto the Internet to look at the CNN.com web site for a brief summary of late breaking news, this reader would most likely only spend a few minutes at the site, and would likely still subscribe to the more traditional print media such as Newsweek or the Washington Post. They would also likely spend significantly more time reading the more traditional printed publication than they would spend reading the electronic publication, and correspondingly, spend more time being exposed to the ads in the traditional printed publication. Accordingly, printed publications continue to flourish todayxe2x80x94more than five centuries after Gutenberg made them possiblexe2x80x94and after more than a decade after the innovation of the electronic publication.
While these printed publications have certainly benefited modem society, no significant attempt has been made thus far to solve the underlying problems with these publications discussed above. Just such a solution is provided herein.
In accordance with the teachings of the present invention, various aspects of an innovative automated document delivery system is presented incorporating the teachings of the present invention. According to one aspect of the present invention, a system and related methods for automatically identifying media type in a printing device media tray is presented. The system comprises a controller, and an optical sensor, communicatively coupled to the controller, wherein the sensor is positioned to locate and identify a code containing media type information from a next available piece of print media, and to generate a signal to the controller based, at least in part, on the identified code.
According to one aspect of the invention, the location of the code on the media also provides media type information. According to one implementation, the code is comprised of a series of small markings deposited on the media by a provider of the media. According to one implementation, the code is comprised of a series of notches, cut from an edge of the media by a provider of the media.
According to one aspect of the invention, the controller configures or reconfigures one or more settings of a communicatively coupled printing device based, at least in part, on the detected media type.